Foveaux FM
Foveaux FM is a local radio station in Invercargill New Zealand that began operating in May 1981. The station is named after Foveaux Strait which runs between the South Island of New Zealand and Stewart Island. The station was originally started by a group of investors as 4XF Foveaux Radio broadcasting on 1224 AM. In the late eighties the station was sold to Radio Otago and in 1991 Foveaux made the switch to FM when it began broadcasting on 89.2 FM and retained the AM frequency.
 | |
| Broadcast area | Southland New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 89.2 FM 1224 AM 104.4 FM |
| Slogan | "Southland's Best Music Mix" |
| Programming | |
| Format | Adult Contemporary |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Caley Hall |
| History | |
| First air date | 1981 |
| Call sign meaning | 4XF |
In October 2018, with trademark now owned by an Invercargill resident, Foveaux Radio began broadcast licensing tests over Invercargill City on 104.4 FM.
Format
Foveaux FM played a mixture the latest hits as well as older music, the station also ran several talk shows such as Talkback with John Husband on weekday mornings and a sports talk show on Sunday mornings called Sports Comment and Opinion. Evening programming catered to a younger audience with the station running a Top 9 at 9 countdown show. The Foveaux FM night show, during the late nineties, was also simulcast on Resort Radio in Queenstown.
Foveaux was always a live and local station 24 hours a day however some specialist nationwide shows were played on the station over the years these included:
- The Other Top 40 (was on-air Saturdays in 1988)
- Coke Shake 30 Countdown (Saturday Afternoons 1992 – 1995)
- Power Jam Countdown (Saturday Afternoons 1995 – 1997)
- Keeping it Kiwi (Sunday 5PM 1994 – 2001)
- Counting the Beat (Sunday 10PM 1994 – 1997)
- Rock Your Radio (Sunday 11PM Kiwi Music Show) (1994–1997)
- Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 (Sunday Afternoons 2002)
Competition
The stations main competitor was 4ZA which is now known as The Hits Southland. Another local competitor was Hokonui Gold which broadcasts from Gore but both stations can be clearly heard across most of Southland. In response to changes in the local and New Zealand radio market, Foveaux FM moved many of their talk related shows to the AM frequency in the late 1990s these shows were later dropped. The station also moved away from targeting the younger audience in the early 2000s, The Top 9 at 9 was replaced by The Eighties at 8.
Studio Location
The Foveaux FM studios were located on the corner or Tay and Kelvin street in Invercargill on the second floor of a building previously used as a hotel, which was known as the Cecil Hotel. The first floor of the building has always been used for retail stores. Today, MORE FM Southland continues to broadcast local shows from this building and the building has also been used to produce shows for other radio stations such as a nationwide breakfast show on Radio LIVE presented by Marcus Lush (up until 2014) and The Breeze in Southland ran a local voice tracked show between 2007 and 2009.
Rebranding to MORE FM
Foveaux FM was owned by Radio Otago up until 1999. Radio Otago merged with Energy Enterprises in 1999 to form RadioWorks.
In November 2004 Canwest RadioWorks decided to rebrand many of their local heritage stations with the well known More FM brand name and then on 15 January 2005 Foveaux FM became Southlands 89.2 More FM. The change also saw the station reduced to 13 hours a day of local programming when More FM introduced a networked night show and overnight show.
In October 2007 the original Foveaux Radio 1224AM frequency that had been continued to be used for the rebranded More FM station was reassigned to BSport. While BSport was launched as a rebranding of Radio Pacific the old Radio Pacific frequency was used to launch The Breeze into Southland.
Local programming on the rebranded MORE FM station has been reduced over the years. Today the breakfast show, hosted by Gretchen Blomfield and Simon Edwards, is the only regular local show. The station will run some local shows at weekends and the daytime show presented from Auckland does contain some local content.
Announcers
| Announcer | Show | Duration | Last known station |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Holding | 6 am – 9 am Breakfast Show | 1990–1991 | Spent 17 years with New Zealand's Rhema. Currently runs a LPFM station HIS-fm in Katikati www.hisfm.co.nz |
| Carl Mills | 10 am – 2 pm Midday Show | 1994–2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM) | Left More FM in December 2009. Starting in a new position as breakfast host on Hokonui Gold, Gore from 18 January 2010. |
| Chris Diack | Mornings | 1981–1987 | LPFM stations |
| Chris Hurring | Nights (5 PM – 12 AM) and a production engineer after 2001 | 1995–1998 and 2001–2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM) | More FM/Mediaworks Taupo from 2005-2010. More Fm/Mediaworks Nelson 2010-2012.
Currently employed at Mediaworks Auckland as Group Imaging Production Engineer for both Radio Live and The Sound. |
| Aileen Wallace | Nights (5 PM – 12 AM) and graveyard shifts (12 AM – 6 AM). Also sourced, wrote and voiced news and commercials.
Only female announcer in Invercargill during her time. |
1992–1994 | Left to become a sound technician with Radio New Zealand Sound Archives. Later worked as a writer and researcher at Natural History New Zealand. |
| Blair Hawkins (Evil) | started part-time while at high school, Night and mid-dawn announcer and temp production engineer. | Full-time from November 1984 – 1987 | Helped set up and run Southlands Access radio station and resident DJ for various niteclubs. |
| Ross Ronald | All shows, started as NZ's youngest full-time broadcaster in early 1983 and progressed through airshifts, sales, programme director and various guises of breakfast show for 21 years. | 1983–2004 | |
| Craig Waddell (Wal) | Co-host of the breakfast show with Darren Ludlow | 1994–2002 | Drivetime show on Hokonui Gold, Gore (left in 2009, returned in 2011) |
| Darren Ludlow | Breakfast show co-hosted by Craig Waddell | 1992–2002 | Invercargill City Council member and station manager for Radio Southland |
| Daryl Shuttleworth | Saturday mornings and filled in for other announcers | 2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM) | Hosts the same show on the rebranded Southland's 89.2 More FM and the current daytime show |
| Eryn Breading | 10 – 2 pm Daytime Show | 2001–2004 | Breakfast show on More FM, Taranaki, now living in England working for radio company. |
| Gretchen Blomfield | Breakfast show co-hosted by James McRobie | 2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM) | Hosts the same show on the rebranded Southland's 89.2 More FM. |
| Iain Stables | Mid 1990s | Drivetime show on The Edge FM (early 2000s) ZM Drive show 2003 - 2008 Hit Radio X105 Wellington Drive Show 2009 - 2010 | |
| James McRobie | Breakfast show co-hosted by Gretchen Blomfield | 2004 – 2005 (when station was rebranded as More FM) | Hosted the breakfast show on the rebranded More FM and moved to rival station Classic Hits 98.8 (now known as The Hits) in 2012 replacing long standing breakfast host John "Boggy" McDowell. |
| John Husband | Morning 9 – 10AM Talkback Show (show ran exclusively on the 1224AM frequency after 1997) | 1980s – 2002 when show was discontinued | Hosted talkback TV shows on Southland TV (since cancelled). Curator of Anderson Park Art Gallery. |
| Kelly Burdon | Night show and Weekend announcer | 2001–2003 | Event and venue co-ordinator for NAPP London, UK. |
| Marcus Lush | Breakfast show co-hosted by Megan Nichol | 2002–2004 | Breakfast show on Radio Live (presented from MediaWorks Southland Studios) |
| Mark McCarron | 1980s - 1990s | Breakfast show announcer on The Sound and the stations predecessor Solid Gold. | |
| Megan Nichol | Breakfast show co-hosted by Marcus Lush | 2002–2004 | Journalist for TVNZ in Dunedin, now living in England |
| Shaun Summerfield | 1993 | Sports presenter for 3 News | |
| Ryan Boswell | Night show and weekend announcer | 2003–2005 | Journalist for Newstalk ZB in Auckland |
| Steve Muir | Originally Overnight shift and later 10AM – 5PM Announcer | 1994–2000 | |
| Tony Bennett | Foveaux Radio's very first station producer | 1981–1985 |
Other early names include Jeff Nuth (Day 1 Brekky announcer) Lloyd Keown, Brian Neilson, Luke Terry, Chris Diack, Alan Davis, Mark Stallard, Geoff Baraclough, Blair Hawkins, Craig Farr, Juanita Rae, Larissa Kellet, Grant Millman, Malcolm Jordan, Karen Scott, Peter Wells, Rob Caig, John MacDonald, Jason MacDonald, Warren Filer, Dave Mahoney (PD & Breakfast host), Jim Healy, Mike Rehu and Dave Wallace